Vanduzi has just put together a new post office system based on those two sites and has been charged with restoring public order and security in a politically volatile area that is urgently in chaos from the outside world that has devastated the Seis Carros area due to strip mining.
The Seis Carros area is one of the richest mineral and geological areas of Portuguese-speaking Africa, but due to the political chaos, there is no security in the area, and the local people’s lives have been put in jeopardy as a result of the lack of provisions for them by law.
On this day, the Government of Canada has received communications from the Government of Nova Scotia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy regarding several deaths that occurred from various landfill slides within the Seis Carros Area. There are now multiple fatalities related to multiple previous slide-offs; therefore, as a result of the numerous fatalities received, the Government of Canada has formally requested the Administrator of NS, Ms Canheze, to reinstate the Administrator’s basic operational protocols that are necessary for current safe and economically feasible operations of the mining industry in the Seis Carros Area.
Seis Carros has become extremely popular with gold miners from both Mozambique and abroad, as it is estimated that over 10,000 individuals are currently working on or near it, and this area has created an economic ecosystem that is larger than simply the extraction of gold. As Seis Carros continues to grow, it reflects the overall growth of artisanal gold and gemstone mining in Manica, a province of Mozambique with high levels of artisanal gold and gemstone mining activity. Although artisanal miners and their families have relied on informal mining for generations to provide for their families, artisanal mining has also resulted in significant environmental degradation and health problems, as well as significant gaps in regulatory oversight. For example, there is significant concern about mercury contamination in artisanal gold mining communities in Manica because the rapid pace of mining has led to increased contamination due to insufficient oversight of the gold mining process.
According to Lindonde’s message, the objective of Vanduzi must go beyond just mining for copper. He urged Canheze to turn Vanduzi into a district recognised for its orderly production as well as being in balance with the rest of Mozambique. Along with the directive to follow disciplined mining practices, Lindonde also suggested that Canheze work harder in agriculture, animal husbandry, and poultry farming; he made the argument that Vanduzi has good agricultural land and has the potential to become a provincial and national model for food production. The choice of Canheze is significant in that he has been a police officer in Mozambique and is also a former provincial police commander in Manica, indicating to observers that they will expect the authorities to have both the capability to carry out enforcement activities and the administrative competence to provide quality services.
The issue of mining development in Vanduzi is complicated by the fact that there is not only one type of extraction but rather two different, competing methods occurring simultaneously. These methods include both informal and unregulated extraction of resources that take place very quickly, along with the ability of the government to enforce existing laws before another avalanche, environmental disaster, or social conflict destroys the future of the community. How the events at Seis Carros play out will be a determining factor in how Vanduzi is viewed – either as a success story of how to manage community growth and development or as an example of what can go wrong when urban areas attempt to self-govern themselves during a major gold mining boom.
